Is your sin original?

Adam and Eve grabbed for the chance to be like gods – judging others as good or evil, exploiting rather than persevering the Earth, competing with one another rather than loving and serving one another.  But Jesus didn’t grasp as godlike status.  He humbly poured himself out for others – in service, in suffering, even to the point of death.

                     Brian McLaren, The Road is Made by Walking

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If there is an original sin,

and trust me it is not original,

it is the sin of power.

 

It is the desire to control others, to dominate,

to be at the center of one’s own universe.

 

That allegorical snake whispered smoothly,

“You can be like God,

you can have it all your way,

you can be free to do what you want,

you can dominate others.”

 

And human creatures fell for it, hook, line, and sinker,

and have been listening to that foul whisper ever since.

Whether the words come from politicians, ideologs,

or preachers, they insidiously draw us into a world of competition,

jealousy, resentment, and ultimately retribution and violence.

 

Be in control.

Seek power.

Use power.

 

We have even chosen to believe that this is how God works.

That God is all about domination, and coercion.

 

God is about power!

But it is a unique kind of power, the power of the cross.

The cross is not about God imposing justice.

The cross is not about control and power.

The cross is about emptying.

 

It is a revelation of the unique power of sacrifice.

Of giving up one’s self for others.

 

What would the negotiations in our Congress, no matter the issue;

healthcare,

debt ceilings,

infrastructure,

taxes (especially taxes),

if the power of sacrifice were in play?

 

How would we be responding to the pandemic and the wearing of masks, and the acceptance of vaccinations,

If the power of emptying were in play?

 

How would the conversation about gun control play out if we were thinking about kenosis instead of domination and intimidation?

 

They way of emptying is a difficult way!

Everything in our culture pulls us away from that path.

Forget whispering snakes, our culture screams about domination.

About grasping.

About individual rights.

 

No wonder Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

 

Domination is the road that leads to destruction,

and many are actively, at many levels, leading us down that road.  Seeking power at all costs, plundering the earth, mistaking selfishness for freedom.

 

Sacrifice is the road that leads to life.  That giving up of self.  Letting go of rights. 

Being people for others, even if it means and erosion of earthly power.

 

We will not defeat this pandemic.

We will not rebuild our infrastructure.

We will not regain justice in the courts,

We will not establish economic equity,

We will not welcome the stranger,

We will not embrace and lift up the poor,

We will not stop shooting one another,

We will not keep our children safe,

We will not establish the Kingdom of God (Love)

 

unless we grab hold of God’s unique form of power,

the power of Love,

and use it.

 

Sacrificially and selflessly, walking down that narrow path with people like Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Dag Hammarskjold, and so many others who have gone before, and changed the world for the better